The Role of Media as a Non-State Actor Event:March 17, 2015

Delta Phi Epsilon a fraternity with a strong focus on international affairs hosted a panel discussion about the role of media as a non-state actor.
The event was held in the Abramson Family Founders room in the SIS building at American University.

This panel discussion featured (1) Nahal Toosi , POLITICO’s deputy politics editor who has reported all over the world. (2)Angie Chaung, a journalism teacher at American University focusing on race and identity in the news media and (3) Cathy Schneider a urban politics professor with a focus on police violence.

The start of the panel discussion was dedicated to telling the audience what exactly a “non-state actor” is. A non state actor is a entity that has enough power to influence publics, and participate in international affairs, but has no affiliation with the state.

The first panelist to speak was Angie Chaung who brought up the idea that in media must be understood through culture. He first example that was the most poignant was that news is a business that must appeal to a large crowd of people. The culture that we live in is based on hits and business therefore when we absorb news media we need to take into consideration that the news media is a money making endeavor.

Nahal Toosi was the second to speak. She spoke about citizen journalism. She spoke about how there is so much out there because of the internet that we are not having problems getting news, rather we are having problems shifting through what is good and bad quality news. She moved on to day that all news outlets are competing because they are  a businesses of course , but this does not foster a sense of responsibility when it comes to the news. Responsibility is a critical aspect for reporting because news outlets feel the need to repot on stories first , but they must be very careful not to have discrepancies because we are dealing with news. The internet has made it incredible easy to share information, but the internet’s ability to reach a vast audience in a short period of time can lead to a lot of false news being read by audiences.  

Cathy Schneider brought up a point about news from abroad and how it is different for the US. She mentions how some topics such as Israel are rarely mentioned in American new, but constantly covered in Europe and the Middle East. The internet has made it increasingly easier to read news from abroad.

The event proved to be successful. . The event had a short cocktail hour that had complementary beverages and food as well to keep the crowed fueled and ready to listen.  It was a packed with people pulling chairs into the room in order to watch the panel discussion. It was well organized with four questions directed at the panelists for an hour and then four to five questions from the audience for about another hour. The panelists stayed on topic while injecting their own experiences and thoughts about the matter at hand.